Blogger and I are not getting along. I've done 2 v...

Blogger and I are not getting along. I've done 2 very long posts (I even thought I had copied the text into memory...and it was gone!) neither of them have shown.

I got home from a wonderful visit with Barbara on Tuesday and feel like I hit the ground running. We had friends visiting Thursday and Friday. Sandra, Conor and Holly our buddies from our old village came for a far too quick visit yesterday afternoon. Today Aine has a swimming lesson, so soon I'll be getting us all bundled up for a walk to the pool.

This is a picture of the town where Barbara lives, Vasteras. It is in one of the few older sections left of the town. I love the wooden architecture and the buildings right up on the river!

On Saturday we hit the town shopping. I was in crafting heaven! I went a little crazy, I'm sure Barbara was shaking her head, lol! This pile doesn't include my loot from her local quilt shop I got on Monday before I left! I got some great Japanese craft books, some cute decorations, a thimble and needle glider...well...just lots... DH took the camera this week on a business trip, but I will show more of my goodies next week when my camera is back!

Sandra and I were just talking yesterday about how much we miss having shops here in Ireland. She is from England and I'm from the States, so we are used to having easy access to crafting items. Here the only thing I find easy to locate with any selection is yarn... Most fabric shops will only have a dozen or so cottons, usually in hideous colors and about $18/yard. There is one quilt shop I know of, and rumors of a few more in the country...I think that brings the quilt shop tally in the country to one definite and 2 small home based quilt "shops"...in the country!! Needless to say...online shopping is done for things I really need right away (peach fabric for my cousins quilt...) and the rest is scrappy stash quilting, enhanced by shopping trips once yearly when I'm home visiting family in the States.

I really wanted some help with my Dear Jane and was so grateful to my wonderful and generous host! It was really special to have a fellow "Dear Janer" help me layer and baste the quilt in preparation for hand quilting. I've never thread basted before, only just pin basted. I also never knew how to hand quilt. Barbara showed me the way she learned to hand quilt in all directions. It will take me ages to get the tiny consistent stitches she does, but I got the basic concept. And as if this help wasn't already generous enough, while I practiced hand quilting Sunday, Barbara whipped up a beautiful huge patchwork tote bag for me in no time at all to carry my DJ on the plane. THANK YOU SO MUCH for everything Barbara, and I only hope I can reciprocate when you and Hakan come for a visit in May.

I have been falling asleep every night so early I've gotten hardly any crafting done this week! I finished another name pillow for Sandra to take home with her yesterday. A gift for her godson... I am procrastinating with the crazy quilting, afraid to just dive in! My goal this weekend is to get caught up with the online class assignments and get some stitching done. I also need to organize my crafting stuff...since I have no table right now but the kitchen table, I've got fabric everywhere...feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the stuff so need to organize it again up in the future craft room, even if it is just into piles for a while.

Better get going. Aine has a swimming lesson today and since Daddy is away on business...me and Aisling will walk her down for her lesson at the pool! 

Crazy Quilt Class Block

I'm not overly happy with this block but I am going to use this as the block to learn with for my Crazy Quilting online class... I am hoping that I can balance it all out with the embellishments I use...

Hope to get to work on my machine tomorrow for that letter pillow for my friend. She is coming to visit a few days after I get back from Sweden! 

A Day in the Life: A "Lazy" Friday

The girls and I have colds at various stages at the moment, and since today was Aisling's Friday playgroup and Aine and I couldn't have our regular date at the swimming pool with our colds, I decided to let Aisling play hookie from school, especially since she has been clingy lately.

I took a lovely bath this morning and got through quite a lot of my book club book, while the girls destroyed trying to keep them tidy, they are having too much fun, but I do make sure Aine helps me tidy them up before bedtime every evening. If she makes a mess she has to clean it up, or at least be trying while mommy probably does most of it played in their room next door. They love imagination games and Aine takes out her dresses for her teddies every day. I've given up for expedience! Aine has her thousands of teddies she plays with on her mattress there in the distance...she has been sleeping on her "Barbie" blow up bed as a special treat as Daddy is painting both beds PINK! I will dye their sheets pink to make the room even more horrible, lol...Eventually I will make quilts, etc, etc...

It is 11am and the girls are still not dressed. Aine is baking me a block birthday cake with lego flower decorations. I just blew out the candles and am eating the pink block with the letter K on it...

I think I will update this blog today as I go along...don't worry I won't do this again probably, but I thought it might be fun to try, there will be some quilting and crafting in the afternoon, I promise. And some cookie baking with kids, and some play-doh...and...

Okay, I'm back...we've made some Halloween sugar cookies, and Aine even fashioned her own "dad" cookie, LOL. The girls had fun, we made a mess...what's not to love...will clean up that mess when I start dinner... I have my priorities, I have been recently attending a teddy halloween party upstairs. Aine sang many songs for me while I peeled off the freezer paper from my Dear Jane...Aine finds it too boring apparently, so looks like the job falls to me!

DJ top to "flimsy" stage!!

Here she is, my Dear Jane top, done this afternoon!! The outside border will stay plain till the quilting is done and then will be cut into a scalloped border, yikes!

I've got to peel off all the freezer paper templates from the back of the quilt and fix a few frayed seams I've already spotted, but she is ready...to go to SWEDEN!!

Barbara and her DJ quilting friends in Vasteras (outside Stockholm) will be helping me to baste this quilt! And Barbara, who teaches hand quilting at her LQS, will get me started learning hand quilting on a few small pieces. The Dear Jane quilt won't be quilted until the new year, she will take a well deserved break for a while as I practice my hand quilting for a few months! I hope to say that this quilt is all hand sewn and quilted in the end.

Oh yeah...and I also finished my other mitten, now I have a pair! We have our knitting group tomorrow and I plan to work on the matching hat.

I've also got a crazy quilt class at www.joggles.com to get started on, and... I'm also dying of a fluey cold thing...hmmm maybe I am doing a bit too much me thinks! Especially with Aisling's 5:45am wakeup call this morning... Off to bed now, I'm tired! 

I Have "Knitten a Mitten" and other things...

This mitten knitted up so quick! I just started it Wednesday night... It is fun learning the new stitches again (increases, decreases, etc) and seeing something useful emerge from your needles...I was so darn excited to make that thumb, LOL! I plan on working on that and also getting my 4 inch strips for the edge of my DJ quilt cut out...

I will be starting a Crazy Quilt class next week and somehow feel that a trip to get some beads, some fabric and maybe some more wool might be formulating in my mind for today. I hate city center driving in Europe, I am no good a parking and parallel parking in Ireland is on the opposite side of the road that I learned on, to add to the complications, LOL! But I will brave the wilds of Limerick my local "big city" here in the name of my crafting!! I think. Aine has a cold, and while she is fine, I might just be all mommerly and hang around playing puzzles with her or something. She won't be able to go to her usual Saturday swim class, as her cough is pretty chesty...

I took my DJ quilt up to our bed yesterday to see how it will fit...pretty well, but I have to figure out how to make it look nice on our IKEA Leksvik sleigh type bed...the bottom corners will be a challenge.
Here is a still life I put together on top of our wardrobe. Two antique quilts and lots of baskets, one on the left was my grandma's, middle one was thrifted, and last one I bought in a French market. I love baskets...they are everywhere in my house, and I can even make my own willow ones, took a few classes, LOL! I liked the girl head statue and bought that a local garden centre. 

My DJ top is done!!

Well. Almost...just have to add the scallop around the edges...but all the blocks are sewn up into the quilt! Just took a little over a year and a half to get to this stage...started early February 2005 and it is all done by hand! I have found it very relaxing to work on the blocks a little at a time, my evening therapy for stressful days chasing after two dynamos ages 2 and 3!

Aine wanted to pose this morning with her apple, LOL! She will help me peel all the freezer paper templates off the back, she's been a great fan the whole way through. 

Knitting Progress!

Lots of us quilters seem to be starting up knitting again! I got started with Aine's scarf in August and finally got this hat done yesterday to match it. It was way to wide for her, despite having checked long the way for correct measurements etc, oh well! I fudged a better fit for her, and while not totally pleased with it, am happy enough.
While unpacking more boxes this week, I found a knitting project that should have been a sweater, but it stalled about 10 years ago and I eventually turned it into a pillow! It is a design with two trees intertwined, a sorta romantic symbol of our upcoming wedding at the time...boy did I learn a lot about cable stitches then!

I nearly finished sewing my last border together, I hope to start sewing it onto the quilt at my patchwork group tomorrow...

Need to start thinking about crazy quilting soon, I start my online class this weekend!